Engaging Queerly in Conflictual Times

Symposium Monday 30 March, 2026

Time: 10:30 am – 9 pm
at ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry (& in parts online)

Evening discussion (7 – 9 pm) Conceptual Activism. decolonial – trans_ecological – queer
with Aylon Cohen, AntkeAntek Engel, Gergana Mineva, Yv Nay, Asmae Ourkiya, Alexandra Papademetriou, Rubia Salgado, Ferdiansyah Thajib, Sifen Wibell and the audience

What does it mean to engage in politics through concepts? Does ‘conceptual’ imply that this kind of activism has less practical relevance or lacks material power? To what extent do concepts imply embodied practices and material relations? Which concepts are interesting from queer and trans theoretical and political perspectives?

The focus is on how the dynamics of queering and transing, or intersectional, decolonial practices, challenge the separation of academia, art, and activism. Inspired by Davina Cooper’s work (link to article), conceptual activism is seen as a way of imagining otherwise, involving the materialization and embodiment of concepts. Bringing marginalized concepts into practice can help to create alternative futures.

In today’s conflictual times, when the risks and dangers posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and extractivist racial capitalism are often overlooked, with authoritarian politics and regimes acting as the driving force behind these issues, the symposium interrogates conceptual activism as a counter-hegemonic ontology and epistemology. The objective is to fight the normalization of material, symbolic and epistemic violence as modus operandi in everyday life and doing politics. The question is: Can queering and transing as a dynamic interweaving of power and desire advance trans*versal justice and sustain critical movements against domination?

Symposium

Conceptual Activism: Engaging Queerly in Conflictual Times

10:30 – 11:00: Arrival and Registration

11:00 – 11:30: Welcome by Antke Antek Engel & the organizing team

11:30 – 12:15: Collective Reading of Davina Cooper’s article on Conceptual Activism

12:15 – 12:30: Coffee Break

12:30 – 14:00 : Workshop I: Navigating Conflictual Consensus: A playful approximation to a conceptually activist term, by Friederike (Fred) Landau-Donnelly, Alexandra Papademetriou, Sifen Wibell

14.00 – 15.30: Lunch Break (external)

15:30 – 17:00: Workshop II: Becoming the Chimera: Trans*Ecology in practice. Rethinking nature, bodies, and metamorphosis, by Asmae Ourkiya, kasu keys (Karolina Heck)

17:00 – 17:15: Coffee Break

17:15 – 18:15: Video tour through the exhibition “Desbatismos” (Debaptisms): Dissident Cartographies and Artistic Practices of Deprogramming” with Co-Curator Fer Nogueira in conversation with Rafael Baioni

18:15 – 19:15: Time for a Cup of T, Cool Down & Time to Recover

Evening Discussion

Conceptual Activism: decolonial – trans_ecological – queer

19:15 – 21:00: Open Fish Bowl Discussion with Aylon Cohen, Gergana Mineva, Yv Nay, Asmae Ourkiya, Rubia Salgado, Alexandra Papademetriou, Ferdiansiyah Thajib, Sifen Wibell and the audience

21:00 – 22:00: Rooftop-Reception

 

Conceptual Activism is part of a series of events on Queer Cohabitations celebrating the iQt’s 20th anniversary, this symposium explores the possibilities and limitations of conceptual activism.

Organized by: Sagniquee Banerjee, AntkeAntek Engel, Karolina (kasu keys) Heck, Friederike (Fred) Landau-Donnelly, Rafael Baioni, Samu/elle Striewski

An Institute for Queer Theory (iQt) event in cooperation with ICI Berlin.

THANK YOU to the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry for hosting us.
ICI Berlin, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin (U-Senefelder Platz), accessibility

Registration required. Registration link available from March 16th.

 

 

For updates check IG: @iQt_queerinstitute